Flame adjusting structure of gas burner

ABSTRACT

A flame adjusting structure is applied in a gas burner which accommodates a gas bottle and controls the gas discharge volume thereof for lighting a fire and producing a high temperature. The gas burner includes a pressing switch, a discharging component, a discharging tube, and a flame controlling gear. The flame adjusting structure includes a rotatable flame controlling component in a ring shape, which has flexibility and is sleeved around the flame controlling gear, inner teeth which are fixedly mounted on the inner edge of the rotatable flame controlling component and corresponding to and engaged with the teeth of the flame controlling gear, a sectional trench cutting off the ring of the rotatable flame controlling component, and elongation portions outwardly extended from the outer edges of the two ends of the sectional trench.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to a flame adjusting structure, and more particularly to a flame adjusting structure used in a gas burner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The usage of gas burner has become more and more extensive. When designing a new gas burner, in addition to the improvement to the functions, such as, heat reaction time and auto fire off, the industry also considers how to simplify the assembling and adjustment processes of the gas burner and increase the production efficiency, so as to reduce the labor cost and improve the productivity.

The conventional flame adjusting structure for the gas burner is illustrated in FIGS. 1A˜1D. As shown, the flame adjusting structure 1 is achieved by locking a positioning screw 3 into a rotatable flame adjusting handle 2, which is sleeved around a flame controlling gear 4. That is, when the positioning screw 3 is screwed forward to reject the tip thereof against the flame controlling gear 4, the flame controlling gear 4 can be driven by pulling the rotatable flame adjusting handle 2, so as to control the gas discharge volume. However, since the handle 2 has a restrictive moving range, after the flame adjusting structure 1 is assembled and before leaving the factory, the quality control staff (QC staff) has to calibrate the flame controlling gear 4 of each gas burner to confirm that if the rotatable flame adjusting handle 2 has been locked by the positioning screw 3 to locate at a position for discharging a normal volume of gas. Therefore, for finishing the assembly, the positioning screw 3 has to be constantly turned by the tool to reject against the flame controlling gear 4, which involves in rigmarole complicated steps. And, for calibration, by using the tool, the QC staff has to repeatedly loosen the positioning screw 3 (as shown in FIG. 1B), turn the handle 2 (as shown in FIG. 1C), and then re-tighten the positioning screw 3 (as shown in FIG. 1D) to confirm if the gas discharge volume is too much or insufficient, which is tedious and inconvenient.

Please refer to FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIGS. 5A˜5D, which are respectively a 3D appearance drawing, a partial decomposition drawing, a decomposition drawing of a flame adjusting structure, and schematic views of continuous motions of the flame adjusting structure, of a gas burner in the prior art. As show, the gas burner 10 can accommodate a gas bottle and control the gas discharge volume thereof for lighting a fire and producing a high temperature. The gas burner 10 includes a pressing switch 14, a discharging component 13 controlled by the pressing switch 14, a discharging tube 12 controlled by the movement of the discharging component 13 to discharge the gas, and a flame controlling gear 11 located on the discharging tube 12 for adjusting the gas discharge volume. The flame adjusting structure 20 is sleeved on the flame controlling gear 11. The discharging component 13 has an opening 131 mounted thereon for clamping the discharging tube 12, so that when the pressing switch 14 is pressed to reject against one end of the discharging component 13, the other end will be moved up along with the clamped discharging tube 12, so as to discharge the gas. The flame adjusting structure 20 includes a ringlike auxiliary flame controlling gear 22 sleeved around the flame controlling gear 11, wherein the auxiliary controlling gear 22 has inner teeth 222 on the inner edge thereof corresponding to and engaged with the teeth of the flame controlling gear 11 and has outer teeth 223 which has plural controlling slots 221 outwardly extended from the lower portions thereof, and a rotatable flame controlling component 21 sleeved around the outer teeth 223 of the auxiliary controlling gear 22. The rotatable flame controlling component 21 has at least six symmetrical positioning protrusions 212 for engaging with the outer teeth 223 and has an operation portion 211 extended from the outer edge thereof for receiving a force to turn the rotatable flame controlling component 21. When assembling, as shown in FIG. 5A, first, the auxiliary flame controlling gear 22 is sleeved around the flame controlling gear 11, and then the rotatable flame controlling component 21 is sleeved on the outer teeth 223 around the auxiliary flame controlling gear 22, so that the auxiliary flame controlling gear 22 can be driven by pulling the rotatable flame controlling component 21, and the flame controlling gear 11 is further driven to control the gas discharge volume. However, as described above, the rotatable flame controlling component 21 has a restrictive moving range, so that after being assembled and before leaving the factory, the QC staff has to calibrate each gas burner to know that if the flame controlling gear 11 has been fixed by the rotatable flame controlling component 21 and the auxiliary flame controlling gear 10 to locate at a position for discharging a normal gas volume. Therefore, the flame adjusting structure 20 not only involves in rigmarole and complicated assembling steps, but also costs more due to the more complicated structure. As shown in FIG. 5B, when the auxiliary flame controlling gear 22 is fixed by a tool 70 and simultaneously a force is applied to turn the rotatable flame controlling component 21, because the friction and the internal stress between the engaged positioning protrusions 212 and outer teeth 223 are lower than the applied force, the rotatable flame controlling component 21 can slide on the auxiliary flame controlling gear 22 until being adjusted by the QC staff to a proper position, as shown in FIG. 5C. Therefore, the adjustment to the gas discharge volume can be achieved, as shown in FIG. 5D. During the traditional calibration process, the OQ staff has to use one hand to correctly insert the tool into the controlling slot 221 for fixing the auxiliary flame controlling gear 22, and the other hand to turn the rotatable flame controlling component 21, so that it is difficult to control the strength for turning, in a result, the positioning protrusions 212 of the rotatable flame controlling component 21 and the outer teeth 223 of the auxiliary flame controlling gear 22 are usually abraded or damaged due to the improper strength. Therefore, not only the calibration process is not easy and convenient to achieve, but also the components are possibly damaged.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objection of the present invention is to provide a flame adjusting structure which provides not only a rapid assembling procedure but also a convenient calibration process.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a flame adjusting structure of a gas burner, wherein the gas burner accommodates a gas bottle and controls the gas discharge volume thereof for lighting a fire and producing a high temperature. The gas burner includes a pressing switch, a discharging component controlled by the pressing switch, a discharging tube controlled by the discharging component to discharge the gas, and a flame controlling gear located on the discharging tube for adjusting the gas discharge volume, in which the flame adjusting structure is sleeved on the flame controlling gear. The flame adjusting structure includes a rotatable flame controlling component in a rang shape, which has flexibility and is sleeved around the flame controlling gear, inner teeth which are mounted on the inner edge of the rotatable flame controlling component and corresponding to and engaged with the teeth of the flame controlling gear, a sectional trench cutting off the ring of the rotatable flame controlling component, and elongation portions outwardly extended from the outer edges of the two ends of the sectional trench. As a result of the flexibility of the rotatable flame controlling component and the sectional trench, which cuts off the component, when the two elongation portions at the two ends of the sectional trench are simultaneously forced to move toward opposite directions, the inner teeth of the rotatable flame controlling component can be separated from the flame controlling gear to facilitate the adjustment to the corresponding positions of the rotatable flame controlling component and the flame controlling gear, and then re-engaged with the flame controlling gear, so as to achieve a rapid assembling of the flame adjusting structure and also an easy and convenient adjustment of the gas discharge volume.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGS. 1A˜1D are schematic views showing the continuous operating conditions of a flame adjusting structure of a conventional gas burner;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of another conventional gas burner;

FIG. 3 is a partial decomposition view of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an exploded decomposition view showing a flame adjusting structure in FIG. 3;

FIGS. 5A˜5D are schematic views showing the continuous operating conditions of the flame adjusting structure in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view showing a flame adjusting structure of a gas burner in a preferred embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a partial exploded decomposition view of FIG. 6;

FIGS. 8A˜8D are schematic views showing the continuous operating conditions of the flame adjusting structure in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a partial exploded decomposition view showing a flame adjusting structure of a gas burner in another preferred embodiment according to the present invention; and

FIGS. 10A˜10D are schematic views showing the continuous operating conditions of the flame adjusting structure in FIG. 9.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Since the main objection of the present invention is to reduce the assembling steps for manufacturing the flame adjusting structure of the gas burner and to simplify the calibration process for the quality control staff as checking the gas discharge volume, the structure, the action principle and the function of other portions of the gas burner which are well known and can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,782 have no more explanation.

Now, please refer to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 which are respectively a partial perspective view and a partial exploded decomposition view of the flame adjusting structure applied in a gas burner according to the present invention. As shown, the gas burner 30 can accommodate a gas bottle and control the gas discharge volume thereof for lighting a fire and producing a high temperature. The gas burner 30 includes a pressing switch 34, a discharging component 33 controlled by the pressing switch 34, a discharging tube 32 controlled by the discharging component 33 to discharge the gas, and a flame controlling gear 31 located on the discharging tube 32 for adjusting the gas discharge volume. The discharging component 33 has an opening 331 mounted thereon for clamping the discharging tube 32, so that when the pressing switch 34 is pressed to reject against and move down one end of the discharging component 33, the other end will be moved up along with the clamped discharging tube 32 to discharge the gas. Here, a flame adjusting structure 40 is sleeved on the flame controlling gear 31. The flame adjusting structure 40 includes a rotatable flame controlling component 41 in a ring shape, which has flexibility and is sleeved around the flame controlling gear 31, inner teeth 412 fixedly mounted on the inner edge of the rotatable flame controlling component 41 and corresponding to and engaged with the teeth of the flame controlling gear 31, a sectional trench 411 cutting off the ring of the rotatable flame controlling component 41, and elongation portions 413 outwardly extended from the outer edges of the two ends of the sectional trench 411. The flame adjusting structure 40 further includes an operation sheath 42 sleeved on the elongation portions 413. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 8D, the operation sheath 42 has positioning points 421 located at the inner surface thereof which can be engaged with engaging points 414 on the elongation portions 413.

Please refer to FIGS. 8A˜8D showing continuous operating conditions of the flame adjusting structure in FIG. 7. When assembling, as shown in FIG. 8A, it only has to sleeve the rotatable flame controlling component 41 on the flame controlling gear 31 and then the inner teeth 412 of the rotatable flame controlling component 41 can conveniently be engaged with the flame controlling gear 31, thereby achieving the assembly. And, through the flexibility of the rotatable flame controlling component 41 and the sectional trench 411, which cuts off the component 41, the two elongation portions 413 at the two ends of the sectional trench 411 can simultaneously be forced to move toward opposite directions. As shown in FIG. 8B, a tool 70 which inserts into the sectional trench 411 forces the inner teeth 412 of the rotatable flame controlling component 41 to separate from the flame controlling gear 31. Then, after the adjustment to the corresponding positions of the rotatable flame controlling component 41 and the flame controlling gear 31 are achieved by the OQ staff, the tool 70 can be removed to recover the engagement between the rotatable flame controlling component 41 and the flame controlling gear 31, as shown in FIG. 8C. Therefore, the calibration to the gas discharge volume can be achieved more easily, simply and conveniently. Of course, the elongation portions 413 also can be covered by the operation sheath 42, as shown in FIG. 8D, which has the positioning points 421 mounted on the inner surface thereof for temporally engaging with the engaging point 414 on the elongation portions 413, so as to provide the user a more convenient manner to turn the rotatable flame controlling component 41 and thus adjust the gas discharge volume.

Furthermore, please refer to FIG. 9, which is a partial exploded decomposition view showing the flame adjusting structure of the gas burner in another preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the gas burner 50 can accommodate a gas bottle and control the gas discharge volume for lighting a fire and producing a high temperature. The gas burner 50 includes a pressing switch 54, a discharging component 53 controlled by the pressing switch 54, a discharging tube 52 controlled by the discharging component 53 to discharge the gas, and a flame controlling gear 51 located on the discharging tube 52 for adjusting the gas discharge volume. The discharging component 53 has an opening 531 mounted thereon for clamping the discharging tube 52, so that when the pressing switch 54 is pressed to reject against and move down one end of the discharging component 53, the other end will be moved up along with the clamped discharging tube 52 to discharge the gas. Here, a flame adjusting structure 60 is sleeved on the flame controlling gear 51. The flame adjusting structure 60 includes a rotatable flame controlling component 61 in a ring shape, which has flexibility and is sleeved around the flame controlling gear 51, inner teeth 612 fixedly mounted on the inner edge of the rotatable flame controlling component 61 and corresponding to and engaged with the teeth of the flame controlling gear 51, a sectional trench 611 cutting off the ring of the rotatable flame controlling component 61, and elongation portions 613 outwardly extended from the outer edges of the two ends of the sectional trench 611. The flame adjusting structure 60 further includes an operation sheath 62 sleeved on the elongation portions 613. The operation sheath 62 has a supporting block 622 which is extended from the inside to the outside thereof and can be matched in the sectional trench 611. Therefore, when the operation sheath 62 is moved toward the elongating direction of the elongation portions 613, the supporting block 622 will simultaneously be moved to separate the two elongation portions 613, thereby forcing the inner teeth 612 of the rotatable flame controlling component 61 to separate from the flame controlling gear 51. And, the two sides of the operation sheath 62 which are used to separate the elongation portions 613 further have formed a trough 623 respectively thereon, so as to provide a moving space to the elongation portions 613. Moreover, as shown in FIG. 10A, the operation sheath 62 has positioning points 621 located at the inner surface thereof which can be engaged with engaging points 614 on the elongation portions 613.

Please refer to FIGS. 10A˜10D showing continuous operating conditions of the flame adjusting structure in FIG. 9. When assembling, as shown in FIG. 10A, it only has to sleeve the rotatable flame controlling component 61 on the flame controlling gear 51 and then the inner teeth 612 of the rotatable flame controlling component 61 can conveniently be engaged with the flame controlling gear 51. Of course, the elongation portions 613 also can be covered by the operation sheath 62, which has the positioning points 621 mounted on the inner surface thereof for engaging with the engaging point 614 on the elongation portions 613 and has the supporting block 622 matched in the sectional trench 611, so as to temporally fix the operation sheath 611 on the elongation portions 613. Thereby, the assembly can be achieved. Accordingly, the user can have a more convenient manner to turn the rotatable flame controlling component 61 and thus adjust the gas discharge volume. Then, as shown in FIG. 10B, when the operation sheath 62 is pulled out along the elongating direction of the elongation portions 613, through the flexibility of the rotatable flame controlling component 61 and the sectional trench 611, which cuts off the component 61, the supporting block 622 of the operation sheath 62 is simultaneously moved to separate the two elongation portions 613 to force the inner teeth 612 of the rotatable flame controlling component 61 to separate from the flame controlling gear 51, as shown in FIG. 10C, thereby providing the QC staff a more convenient manner to adjust the corresponding positions of the rotatable flame controlling component 61 and the flame controlling gear 51, as shown FIG. 10D. Then, when the operation sheath 62 is pushed back along the elongation portions 613 in an opposite direction, the supporting block 622 can be matched in the sectional trench 611 again, so as to re-position the inner teeth 612 of the rotatable controlling component 61 to engage with the flame controlling gear 51. Therefore, the calibration to the gas discharge volume can be achieved more easily, simply and conveniently.

It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed. 

1. A flame adjusting structure of a gas burner, wherein the gas burner accommodates a gas bottle and controls the gas discharge volume thereof for lighting a fire and producing a high temperature, and the gas burner comprises a pressing switch, a discharging component controlled by the pressing switch, a discharging tube controlled by the discharging component to discharge the gas, and a flame controlling gear located on the discharging tube for adjusting the gas discharge volume, in which the flame adjusting structure is sleeved on the flame controlling gear, the flame adjusting structure comprising: a rotatable flame controlling component in a ring shape, which is flexible and is sleeved around the flame controlling gear; inner teeth, which are fixedly mounted on the inner edge of the rotatable flame controlling component and corresponding to and engaged with the teeth of the flame controlling gear; a sectional trench, cutting off the ring of the rotatable flame controlling component; and elongation portions, outwardly extended from the outer edges of the two ends of the sectional trench; whereby when the two elongation portions at the two ends of the sectional trench are simultaneously forced to move toward opposite directions from the sectional trench which cuts off the rotatable flame controlling component, the inner teeth of the rotatable flame controlling component are separated from the flame controlling gear to facilitate the adjustment to the corresponding positions of the rotatable flame controlling component and the flame controlling gear, and then re-engaged with the flame controlling gear, so as to achieve a rapid assembling of the flame adjusting structure and also an easy and convenient adjustment of the gas discharge volume.
 2. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flame adjusting structure further comprises an operation sheath sleeved on the elongation portions.
 3. The structure as claimed in claim 2, wherein the operation sheath comprises a positioning point located at the inner surface thereof for engaging with an engaging point on the elongation portions.
 4. The structure as claimed in claim 2, wherein the operation sheath has a supporting block extended from the inside to the outside thereof and matched in the sectional trench, and when the operation sheath is moved toward the elongating direction of the elongation portions, the supporting block is simultaneously moved to separate the two elongation portions, thereby forcing the inner teeth of the rotatable flame controlling component to separate from the flame controlling gear.
 5. The structure as claimed in claim 3, wherein the operation sheath has a supporting block extended from the inside to the outside thereof and matched in the sectional trench, and when the operation sheath is moved toward the elongating direction of the elongation portions, the supporting block is simultaneously moved to separate the two elongation portions, thereby forcing the inner teeth of the rotatable flame controlling component to separate from the flame controlling gear.
 6. The structure as claimed in claim 4, wherein the two sides of the operation sheath used to separate the two elongation portions respectively comprise a trough formed thereon for providing the elongation portions a moving space.
 7. The structure as claimed in claim 5, wherein the two sides of the operation sheath used to separate the two elongation portions respectively comprise a trough formed thereon for providing the elongation portions a moving space. 